The sky is high. The Czar is far.
This is a really cool piece – by Jimmy Carter’s son, no less.
Personally, I’m almost electioned-out, heh heh.
Halloween should have been a break from all that, but it looks like we have no plans after all. Oh the joy, the JOY of having nothing to do and nowhere to go on one of my favourite nights of the year.
And, on a random note, the Gerard Butler weirdness on this blog continues. I shall have updates. Whenever it is I can get it together, that is.
Ukrainian police – you done made me proud.
Not really, no.
Ukraine’s sex-workers are shamed already; shamed, and attacked, and demonized by the very same society that profits greatly from them. Many of them are no more than slaves. Others just aren’t bloody interested in working in McDonald’s or whatever, and they have the right not to be. Very few have access to adequate healthcare, just like many of Ukraine’s citizens in general.
Sex-workers are some of Ukraine’s most marginalized citizens, and the efforts to marginalize them further are pathetic. At best, they hint at the fact that the police lacks the resources to go after real criminals – extortionists, child molesters, abusive spouses – or else simply does not feel that their crimes really warrant as much of a fuss.
Instead of going after violent pimps and shady brothel-owners, instead of insisting to their superiors that prostitution needs to be at the very least decriminalized (which, if you ask most cops, it does), someone in the Ukraine police force has decided that the officers are better off trying to turn these women’s families against them.
Charming.
What’s next? A mandatory scarlet “A”? Public flogging?
And for more sweet pictures and some sweet writing – just check out the original post by the lovely Elle.
I raise my glass to you, o children of the future (don’t you dare follow my example, cranberry vodka is strictly for tired-after-work adults).
Renee has tagged me back! It’s the 6 random things meme, and while I’m sure I’ve done it before, I’m not one of those bloggers who gets tired of talking about herself. *ahem*
Anyway, here are the rules:
6 Random Things About Me:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself. (See below)
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (See further below…)
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
1. I’m twenty-four years old at present, I still can’t cook worth a damn, and it’s rather pathetic.
2. Socks discarded on the floor drive me into a homicidal rage.
3. I put on make-up even when I nip out to Burger King. There’s an odd mix of vulnerability and feeling as though I am being rude to the people around me unless I am wearing some kind of a mask, however slight, over my features. It’s a family tradition, a war-paint and a gesture of politeness, like refraining from picking your nose in public. I’ve thought about quitting, but I have too much fun picking out eyeshadows every morning.
4. Speaking of make-up, I think few things are hotter than a man wearing eyeliner.
5. Old pictures of a smiling George W. Bush, like this the “official one,” – they always makes me very sad, and not in a malicious way at all. I want to go back in time and put my hand on his shoulder and say, “Frodo, don’t give in!”
6. “The Land Before Time” still makes me cry.
Hokay, I tag: Debi, Caroline, Antiprincess, Dw3t-Hthr, Rootie, and Gabriel.
And for good times at work, so that life never gets us down, here is “The Whole of the Moon”:
I can’t think of a better song to start this week with.
OK, so the fact that John and Cindy McCain have a rather large amount of properties to their name is old news.
I found it interesting that they’re all in the States, and the fact that they are has left me with certain criteria for this little bit of Fun Distraction in these End-of-World Times (awesome Mad Max future, here we come).
I have been thinking about all of this for a while, and the thinking has turned to dreaming, and with a little extra Bloody Mary-swilling on top of the dreaming, I have come up with a very simple game:
Where Would Your 8 Homes Be?
List them. You don’t have to list your reasons, but if you do at least for a few of them, it would be more fun. And remember that the only rule is: the homes must be within the borders of the United States of America or else, within the borders of the country you live in, so as to utterly emulate the McCains. When you’re done, tag 8 people, so that they may join in the self-indulgence, forgetting about the crappy property market and the equivalent of The End of Pompeii on Wall-Street. You could spend your time hammering your doors and windows shut in preparation for the apocalypse instead, but it would be much less fun.
OK, mine are as follows:
1. Charlotte, NC. I even know where exactly: preferably somewhere off of Rea Road, or else off of Carmel. Charlotte is where I lived for eight years. I love its silences and autumn drives (during which I will invariably play the “Fellowship of the Ring” soundtrack, because I’m cool like that), and the occasional freak snow-storms that shut down the city completely, and the smell of honeysuckle in the spring. I would string up a garland of lights over my back porch, and sit there with Boyfriend and a lovely, well-behaved dog (puppy class a must this time around), and read Kate Atkinson out loud.
2. Atlanta, GA. Preferably in Buckhead. Call me pretentious, whatever.
3. Somewhere in N. California. I’m thinking Palo Alto. So I can streak over to Anna’s house in the middle of the night. And Stanford’s right there. Anyway, I haven’t been out West yet, but when I’m suddenly a gajillionaire, that won’t be a problem.
4. I want a flat on the Upper East Side too. I could pretend to be cool and say that I want a flat somewhere more “chilled out” or “laid back” in New York, but I would only be lying. It would be very modern too, with those weird new sinks I absolutely love.
5. I definitely want a house in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe.
6. I want a small place on the Carolina coast. IT WILL NOT HAVE ANY TACKY BEACH PARAPHERNALIA DECORATING THE WALLS . OK, maybe a glass dolphin, or something.
7. One of those old Gothic-revival houses in Louisville, Kentucky. Definitely. I love Louisville. And Gothic revival.
8. I want a cozy place in one of those skiing destinations. I’m thinking Aspen, although that might be too obvious. I can’t ski worth a damn, but I like sitting around in a warm sweater and a hat with flappy ears, drinking spiced rum. Which is totally the same thing, right?
For this exercise in fun, I tag: Renee, Daisy, Wallace, Ren, Kim, Belle, Bint, ParallelSidewalk, and anyone else who wants to be tagged. Including anyone in the comments section.
Natalia A. 